KK said in one of the recent CCs to discuss one of the latest acquisitions that, while management would always be on the prowl for acquisitions that made sense from a product, strategic or financial perspective, JDSU was pretty near the end of the acquisition phase of JDSU's strategy (four parts--broaden product line/increase capacity/can't remember what #3 was/the as yet undisclosed #4). JDSU has made a number of recent tuck-in acquisitions to round out the product line.
Whether or not an acquisition of E-tek would make sense right now, from an increased capacity/revenues perspective or otherwise, I don't know. There's the question of the product and strategy fit, the customer list, the enterprise issue as to whether E-tek wants to remain independent (Goldman Sachs are its bankers) and management compatibility/willingness to play second fiddle to KK and Dr. J, if they would stay at all. Complex questions.
My own feeling is that JDSU needs to go through a digestive phase of knitting the recent new parts together and establishing the intended operating and financial synergies. I also believe that it is beginning to be the time that JDSU realizes strategic leverage from its considerable R&D capability, which as a whole has been fairly quiet amidst all the hoopla pre- and post-merger. There have been many developments in the optical space, in terms of potential innovation and breakthrough/lambda count-per-fiber/transmission speeds/cross-connects and switching as well as what I call "mixed-media", or optical through air space. Bulldozer knows these issues inside-out, pedabit more than I. But my gut tells me that there should be something brewing from within JDSU to help fiber systems suppliers' economies of transmission or installation or some other metric of advance within the fiberoptic space.
JM2C.
Steve |
